Sue Townsend Sue Townsend Re-issued with the charming original artwork from 1982, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 will rouse the nostalgia of a nation who have Sue Townsend firmly in their hearts. Tuesday January 1st Bank Holiday in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. These are my New Year's resolutions: 1. I will help the blind across the road; 2. I will hang my trousers up; 3. I will put the sleeves back on my records; 4. I will not start smoking; 5. I will stop squeezing my spots; 6. I will be kind to the dog; 7. I will help the poor and ignorant; 8. After hearing the disgusting noises from downstairs last night. I have also vowed never to drink alcohol . . . Meet Adrian Mole, a hapless teenager providing an unabashed, pimples-and-all glimpse into adolescent life. Telling us candidly about his parents' marital troubles, The Dog, his life as a tortured poet and 'misunderstood intellectual'. Adrian's painfully honest diary is still hilarious and compelling reading thirty years after it first appeared.

'Townsend has held a mirror up to the nation and made us happy to laugh at what we see in it' Sunday Telegraph Sue Townsend was born in Leicester in 1946. Despite not learning to read until the age of eight, leaving school at fifteen with no qualifications and having three children by the time she was in her mid-twenties, she always found time to read widely. She also wrote secretly for twenty years. After joining a writer's group at The Phoenix Theatre Leicester, she won a Thames Television award for her first play, Womberang, and became a professional playwright and novelist. After the publication of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 ¾ thirty years ago, Sue continued made the nation laugh and pricked its conscience. She wrote seven further volumes of Adrian's diaries and five other popular novels - including The Queen and I and Number Ten - and numerous well received plays. Sue passed away in 2014 at the age of sixty-eight. She is widely regarded as Britain's favourite comic writer. Now available as an ebook novella is the brilliantly funny True Confessions of Margaret Hilda Roberts by Sue Townsend Tuesday May 24th Had a lie in until 6am.

Then got out of bed and had a brisk rub down with the pumice stone. I opened the curtains and saw that the sun was shining brightly. (A suspicion is growing in my mind that the BBC is not to be trusted.) Margaret Hilda Roberts is a rather ambitious 14 ¼ year old grocer's daughter from Grantham. She can't abide laziness, finds four hours of chemistry homework delightful and believes she is of royal birth - or at least destined for great things. But Margaret knows that good things never come to those who wait . . . These are the secret diary entries of a girl born into an ordinary life, yet who might just go on to become something really rather extraordinary, and she is brilliantly brought vividly to life by bestselling author Sue Townsend, Britain's favourite comic writer for over three decades. 'Essential reading for Mole followers' Times Educational Supplement 'Wonderfully funny and sharp as knives' Sunday Times Sue Townsend is Britain's favourite comic author.

Her hugely successful novels include eight Adrian Mole books, The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman (Aged 55¾), Number Ten, Ghost Children, The Queen and I, Queen Camilla and The Woman Who Went to Bed For a Year, all of which are highly acclaimed bestsellers. She has also written numerous well-received plays. She lives in Leicester, where she was born and grew up. Sue Townsend Sue Townsend, bestselling author of the Adrian Mole series, will have you laughing out loud with Rebuilding Coventry - a satire on modern Britain and the battle of the sexes. 'There are two things that you should know about me immediately: the first is that I am beautiful, the second is that yesterday I killed a man. Both things were accidents . . .' When Midlands housewife Coventry Dakin kills her neighbour in a wild bid to prevent him from strangling his wife, she goes on the run. Finding herself alone and friendless in London she tries to lose herself in the city's maze of streets. There, she meets a bewildering cast of eccentric characters.

From Professor Willoughby D'Eresby and his perpetually naked wife Letitia to Dodo, a care-in the-community inhabitant of Cardboard City, all of whom contrive to change Coventry in ways she could never have foreseen . . . Rebuilding Coventry is Sue Townsend's brilliant, laugh-out-loud satire on modern Britain and the unfinished battle of the sexes. 'Splendidly witty . . . the social observations sharp and imaginative' Sunday Express 'Nasty, naughty, funny, brash. I found this swift novel a delight' Joseph Heller 'A satire in the best, Johnsonian tradition, with nothing and no one spared' New Statesman Sue Townsend is Britain's favourite comic author. Her hugely successful novels include eight Adrian Mole books, The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman (Aged 55¾), Number Ten, Ghost Children, The Queen and I, Queen Camilla and The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year, all of which are highly acclaimed bestsellers. She has also written numerous well-received plays. She lives in Leicester, where she was born and grew up.

Sue Townsend Sue Townsend, the bestselling author of the Adrian Mole series, returns with The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year, a funny and touching novel about what happens when someone stops being the person everyone wants them to be. 'Laugh-out-loud . . . a teeming world of characters whose foibles and misunderstandings provide glorious amusement. Something deeper and darker than comedy' Sunday Times The day her twins leave home, Eva climbs into bed and stays there. For seventeen years she's wanted to yell at the world, 'Stop! I want to get off'. Finally, this is her chance. Her husband Brian, an astronomer having an unsatisfactory affair, is upset. Who will cook his dinner? Eva, he complains, is attention seeking. But word of Eva's defiance spreads. Legions of fans, believing she is protesting, gather in the street. While Alexander the white van man brings tea, toast and sympathy. And from this odd but comforting place Eva begins to see both herself and the world very, very differently. . . Bestselling author Sue Townsend has been Britain's favourite comic writer for over three decades, The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year is her hilarious new novel.

'She fills the pages with turmoil, anger, passion, love and big helpings of wit. It's full of colour and glows with life' Independent 'Hilarious and totally Townsend. There were parts where I laughed until I cried' Daily Mail 'Touching and hilarious. Bursting with witty social commentary as well as humour' Women's Weekly 'A funny, poignant look at modern family life' Daily Express Sue Townsend is one of Britain's favourite comic authors. Her hugely successful novels include eight Adrian Mole books, The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman (Aged 55¾), Number Ten, Ghost Children, The Queen and I, Queen Camilla and The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year, all of which are highly-acclaimed bestsellers. Sue passed away in 2014 and is survived by her husband, four children, ten grandchildren and millions of avid readers. Sue Townsend Sue Townsend's The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman (Aged 55¾) is a wonderful collection of non-fiction pieces, giving us an insight into Sue's hilarious world. Sue Townsend is the much-loved comic author who brought us the bestselling Adrian Mole series.

Enter the world of Susan Lilian Townsend - sun-worshippers, work-shy writers, garden centre lovers and those in search of a good time are all welcome ... This sparkling collection of Sue Townsend's hilarious non-fiction covers everything from hosepipe bans to Spanish restaurants, from writer's block to slug warfare, from slob holidays to the banning of beige. These funny, perceptive and touching pieces reveal Sue, ourselves and the nation in an extraordinary new light. Sit back and chortle away as one of Britain's most popular and acclaimed writers takes a feather to your funny bone. The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman (Aged 55¾) is Sue Townsend's brilliantly witty collection on non-fiction pieces. 'Anyone who loved The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole will enjoy this collection of witty and sharply observed jottings from the inimitable Sue Townsend. Great stuff' OK! 'Full of homely, hilarious asides on the absurdities of domestic existence ... What a fantastic advertisement for middle-age - it can't be bad if it's this funny' Heat 'A welcome addition to any bookshelf' Hello!

'It's as if Townsend has caught our idiosyncrasies on candid camera and is showing a rerun of all the silly clips ... the ideal dip-in-and-out book' Time Out Sue Townsend is Britain's favourite comic author. Her hugely successful novels include eight Adrian Mole books, The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman (Aged 55¾), Number Ten, Ghost Children, The Queen and I, Queen Camilla and The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year, all of which are highly acclaimed bestsellers. She has also written numerous well-received plays. She lives in Leicester, where she was born and grew up. Sue Townsend, one of Britain's most-loved writers and the creator of the much-loved Adrian Mole series, tells a compassionate and gritty story of love and loss in Ghost Children. 'Gripping and disturbing. Utterly absorbing' Independent Seventeen years ago Angela Carr aborted an unwanted child. The child's father, Christopher Moore, was devastated by the loss and he retreated from the world. Unable to accept what had happened between them both went their separate ways.

However, when Christopher makes a horrifying discovery whilst out walking his dog on the heath he finds that he is compelled to confront Angela about the past. As they start seeing each another again can they avoid the mistakes of the past? And will their future together be eclipsed by those mistakes of yesterday? A compelling fable of our times, Ghost Children is a compassionate and gritty examination of love and loss from one of Britain's most-loved writers, Sue Townsend. 'Bleak, tender and deeply affecting. Seldom have I rooted so hard for a set of fictional individuals' Mail on Sunday 'Leaves one gasping for more' Daily Telegraph 'Engrossing, memorable and moving' Guardian 'Startling and raw' Observer Sue Townsend is Britain's favourite comic author. Her hugely successful novels include eight Adrian Mole books, The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman (Aged 55¾), Number Ten, The Queen and I, Queen Camilla and The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year, all of which are highly acclaimed bestsellers. She has also written numerous well-received plays. She lives in Leicester, where she was born and grew up.

Number Ten is the brilliantly funny novel by Sue Townsend, author of the Adrian Mole series. Behind the doors of the most famous address in the country, all is not well. Edward Clare was voted into Number Ten after a landslide election victory. But a few years later and it is all going wrong. The love of the people is gone. The nation is turning against him. Panicking, Prime Minister Clare enlists the help of Jack Sprat, the policeman on the door of No 10, and sets out to discover what the country really thinks of him. In disguise, they venture into the great unknown: the mean streets of Great Britain. And for the first time in years, the Prime Minister experiences everything life in this country has to offer - an English cream tea, the kindness of strangers, waiting for trains that never come and treatment in a hospital - and at last he remembers some of things he once really cared about . . . Bestselling author Sue Townsend has been Britain's favourite comic writer for over three decades. 'Wickedly entertaining. There is a gem on nearly every page. Nothing escapes Townsend's withering pen. Satirical, witty, observant ...

a clever book' Observer 'Poignant, hilarious, heart-rending, devastating' New Statesman 'Hilarious. Sue Townsend's laughter is infectious' John Mortimer, Sunday Telegraph Books of the Year Sue Townsend is Britain's favourite comic author. Her hugely successful novels include eight Adrian Mole books, The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman (Aged 55¾), Number Ten, Ghost Children, The Queen and I, Queen Camilla and The Woman Who Went to Bed For a Year, all of which are highly acclaimed bestsellers. She has also written numerous well-received plays. She lives in Leicester, where she was born and grew up. The Queen and I is the brilliantly funny novel by Sue Townsend, author of the Adrian Mole series. THE MONARCHY HAS BEEN DISMANTLED When a Republican party wins the General Election, their first act in power is to strip the royal family of their assets and titles and send them to live on a housing estate in the Midlands.

Exchanging Buckingham Palace for a two-bedroomed semi in Hell Close (as the locals dub it), caviar for boiled eggs, servants for a social worker named Trish, the Queen and her family learn what it means to be poor among the great unwashed. But is their breeding sufficient to allow them to rise above their changed circumstance or deep down are they really just like everyone else? Bestselling author Sue Townsend has been Britain's favourite comic writer for over three decades. 'No other author could imagine this so graphically, demolish the institution so wittily and yet leave the family with its human dignity intact' The Times 'Absorbing, entertaining ... the funniest thing in print since Adrian Mole' Ruth Rendell, Daily Telegraph 'Kept me rolling about until the last page' Daily Mail Sue Townsend is Britain's favourite comic author. Her hugely successful novels include eight Adrian Mole books, The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman (Aged 55¾), Number Ten, Ghost Children, The Queen and I, Queen Camilla and The Woman Who Went to Bed For a Year, all of which are highly acclaimed bestsellers. She has also written numerous well-received plays.

She lives in Leicester, where she was born and grew up. Queen Camilla is the brilliantly funny sequel to The Queen and I by Sue Townsend. What if being Royal was a crime? The UK has come over all republican. The Royal Family exiled to an Exclusion Zone with the other villains and spongers. And to cap it all, the Queen has threatened to abdicate. Yet Prince Charles is more interested in root vegetables than reigning ... unless his wife Camilla can be Queen in a newly restored monarchy. But when a scoundrel who claims to be the couple's secret lovechild offers to take the crown off their hands, the stage is set for a right Royal show down. And the question for Camilla (and rest of the country) will be: Queen of the vegetable patch or Queen of England? Bestselling author Sue Townsend has been Britain's favourite comic writer for over three decades. 'Brilliantly satirical' Evening Standard 'One of our finest living comic writers' The Times 'Brilliantly funny' Closer 'Another fantastic read from Townsend' OK! Sue Townsend is Britain's favourite comic author.

Her hugely successful novels include eight Adrian Mole books, The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman (Aged 55¾), Number Ten, Ghost Children, The Queen and I, Queen Camilla and The Woman Who Went to Bed For a Year, all of which are highly acclaimed bestsellers. She has also written numerous well-received plays. She lives in Leicester, where she was born and grew up. Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years is the fifth book in Sue Townsend's brilliantly funny Adrian Mole series. Wednesday August 13th Here I am again - in my old bedroom. Older, wiser, but with less hair, unfortunately. The atmosphere in this house is very bad. The dog looks permanently exhausted. Every time the phone rings my mother snatches it up as though a kidnapper were on the line. Adrian Mole is thirty, single and a father. His cooking at a top London restaurant has been equally mocked ('the sausage on my plate could have been a turd' - AA Gill) and celebrated (will he be the nation's first celebrity offal chef?).

And the love of his life, Pandora Braithwaite, is the newly elected MP for Ashby-de-la-Zouch - one of 'Blair's Babes'. He is frustrated, disappointed and undersexed. But a letter from Adrian's past is about to change everything . . . 'Adrian Mole really is a brilliant comic creation. Every sentence is witty and well thought out, and the whole has reverberations beyond itself' The Times 'One of the greatest comic creations. I can't remember a more relentlessly funny book' Daily Mirror 'Three cheers for Mole's chaotic, non-achieving, dysfunctional family. We need him' Evening Standard Sue Townsend is one of Britain's favourite comic authors. Her hugely successful novels include eight Adrian Mole books, The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman (Aged 55¾), Number Ten, Ghost Children, The Queen and I, Queen Camilla and The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year, all of which are highly-acclaimed bestsellers. Sue passed away in 2014 and is survived by her husband, four children, ten grandchildren and millions of avid readers.

The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole, 1999-2001 is the seventh book in Sue Townsend's brilliantly funny Adrian Mole series. Monday January 3, 2000 So how do I greet the New Millennium? In despair. I'm a single parent, I live with my mother . . . I have a bald spot the size of a jaffa cake on the back of my head . . . I can't go on like this, drifting into early middle-age. I need a Life Plan . . . The 'same age as Jesus when he died', Adrian Mole has become a martyr: a single-father bringing up two young boys in an uncaring world. With the ever-unattainable Pandora pursuing her ambition to become Labour's first female PM; his over-achieving half-brother Brett sponging off him; and literary success ever-elusive, Adrian tries to make ends meet and find a purpose. But little does he realise that his own modest life is about to come to the attention of those charged with policing The War Against Terror . . . Bestselling author Sue Townsend has been Britain's favourite comic writer for over three decades.

'An achingly funny anti-hero' Daily Mail 'One of the great comic creations of our time. Almost every page of his diaries bring a smile to the face' Scotsman Sue Townsend is Britain's favourite comic author. Her hugely successful novels include eight Adrian Mole books, The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman (Aged 55¾), Number Ten, Ghost Children, The Queen and I, Queen Camilla and The Woman Who Went to Bed For a Year, all of which are highly acclaimed bestsellers. She has also written numerous well-received plays. She lives in Leicester, where she was born and grew up. Sue Townsend Thursday January 3rd I have the most terrible problems with my sex life. It all boils down to the fact that I have no sex life. At least not with another person. Finally given the heave-ho by Pandora, Adrian Mole finds himself in the unenviable situation of living with the love-of-his-life as she goes about shacking up with other men. Worse, as he slides down the employment ladder, from deskbound civil servant in Oxford to part-time washer-upper in Soho, he finds that critical reception for his epic novel, Lo!

The Flat Hills of My Homeland, is not quite as he might have hoped. But Adrian is about to discover that extraordinary and wonderful things may blossom even in the wilderness . . . True Confessions of Adrian Mole, Margaret Hilda Roberts and Susan Lilian Townsend is the third book in Sue Townsend's brilliantly funny Adrian Mole series. Monday June 13th. I had a good, proper look at myself in the mirror tonight. I've always wanted to look clever, but at the age of twenty years and three months I have to admit that I look like a person who has never even heard of Jung or Updike. Adrian Mole is an adult. At least that's what it says on his passport. But living at home, clinging to his threadbare cuddly rabbit 'Pinky', working as a paper pusher for the DoE and pining for the love of his life, Pandora, has proved to him that adulthood isn't quite what he expected. Still, without the slings and arrows of modern life what else would an intellectual poet have to write about . . . Included here are two other less well-known diarists: Sue Townsend and Margaret Hilda Roberts, a rather ambitious grocer's daughter from Grantham.

Bestselling author Sue Townsend has been Britain's favourite comic writer for over three decades. 'Essential reading for Mole followers' Times Educational Supplement 'Wonderfully funny and sharp as knives' Sunday Times Sue Townsend is Britain's favourite comic author. Her hugely successful novels include eight Adrian Mole books, The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman (Aged 55¾), Number Ten, Ghost Children, The Queen and I, Queen Camilla and The Woman Who Went to Bed For a Year, all of which are highly acclaimed bestsellers. She has also written numerous well-received plays. She lives in Leicester, where she was born and grew up. Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years is the eighth book in Sue Townsend's brilliantly funny Adrian Mole series. Sunday 1st July NO SMOKING DAY A momentous day! Smoking in a public place or place of work is forbidden in England. Though if you a lunatic, a prisoner, an MP or a member of the Royal Family you are exempt. Adrian Mole is thirty-nine and a quarter. He lives in the country in a semi-detached converted pigsty with his wife Daisy and their daughter.

His parents George and Pauline live in the adjoining pigsty. But all is not well. The secondhand bookshop in which Adrian works is threatened with closure. The spark has fizzled out of his marriage. His mother is threatening to write her autobiography (A Girl Called Shit). And Adrian's nightly trips to the lavatory have become alarmingly frequent . . . Bestselling author Sue Townsend has been Britain's favourite comic writer for over three decades. 'A tour de force by a comic genius and if it isn't the best book published this year, I'll eat my bookshelf' Daily Mail, Books of the Year 'Effortlessly hilarious. Brilliant satire and tragedy' The Times 'Hilarious. Comic gold' Sunday Times Sue Townsend is one of Britain's favourite comic authors. Her hugely successful novels include eight Adrian Mole books, The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman (Aged 55¾), Number Ten, Ghost Children, The Queen and I, Queen Camilla and The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year, all of which are highly-acclaimed bestsellers. Sue passed away in 2014 and is survived by her husband, four children, ten grandchildren and millions of avid readers.

Adrian Mole and The Weapons of Mass Destruction is the sixth book in Sue Townsend's brilliantly funny Adrian Mole series. Wednesday April 2nd My birthday. I am thirty-five today. I am officially middle-aged. It is all downhill from now. A pathetic slide towards gum disease, wheelchair ramps and death. Adrian Mole is middle-aged but still scribbling. Working as a bookseller and living in Leicester's Rat Wharf; finding time to write letters of advice to Tim Henman and Tony Blair; locked in mortal combat with a vicious swan called Gielgud; measuring his expanding bald spot; and trying to win-over the voluptuous Daisy . . . Adrian yearns for a better more meaningful world. But he's not ready to surrender his pen yet... Bestselling author Sue Townsend has been Britain's favourite comic writer for over three decades. 'Hilarious. Deft, gleeful mockery impales modish fads, from home make-overs to new-age crazes, while fiercer irony is trained on the country's involvement with Iraq' Sunday Times 'Richly comic ...

stuffed full of humour, tragedy, vanity, pathos and, very occasionally, wisdom' Guardian 'Completely hilarious, laugh-out-loud, a joy' Daily Mirror Sue Townsend is Britain's favourite comic author. Her hugely successful novels include eight Adrian Mole books, The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman (Aged 55¾), Number Ten, Ghost Children, The Queen and I, Queen Camilla and The Woman Who Went to Bed For a Year, all of which are highly acclaimed bestsellers. She has also written numerous well-received plays. She lives in Leicester, where she was born and grew up. The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole is the second book in Sue Townsend's brilliantly funny Adrian Mole series. Sunday July 18th My father announced at breakfast that he is going to have a vasectomy. I pushed my sausages away untouched. In this second instalment of teenager Adrian Mole's diaries, the Mole family is in crisis and the country is beating the drum of war. While his parents have reconciled after both embarked on disastrous affairs, Adrian is shocked to learn of his mother's pregnancy.

And even though at the mercy of his rampant hormones and the fickle whims of the divine Pandora, a victim of a broken home and his own tortured (though unrecognised) genius, Adrian continues valiantly to chronicle the pains and pleasures of a misspent adolescence. Bestselling author Sue Townsend has been Britain's favourite comic writer for over three decades. 'Funny, moving and a poke in the eye for adult morality' Sunday Express 'Written with great verve, and showing an uncanny understanding of the young, Sue Townsend holds the balance between innocence and precocity and the result is both hilarious and salutary' Daily Telegraph 'Life's no fun for an adolescent intellectual. For the reader it's a hoot' New Statesman Sue Townsend is one of Britain's favourite comic authors. Her hugely successful novels include eight Adrian Mole books, The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman (Aged 55¾), Number Ten, Ghost Children, The Queen and I, Queen Camilla and The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year, all of which are highly-acclaimed bestsellers. Sue passed away in 2014 and is survived by her husband, four children, ten grandchildren and millions of avid readers.

Sue Townsend (and others) To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the first publication of Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole, Penguin Audiobooks are re-releasing the audiobook edition of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 in downloadable audio. This classic of comic fiction is hilariously read by Stephen Mangan, who played Adrian Mole in the The Cappuccino Years and also starred in The Green Wing as the hapless Guy Secretan. Friday January 2nd I felt rotten today. It's my mother's fault for singing 'My Way' at two o'clock in the morning at the top of the stairs. Just my luck to have a mother like her. There is a chance my parents could be alcoholics. Next year I could be in a children's home. Meet Adrian Mole, a hapless teenager providing an unabashed, pimples-and-all glimpse into adolescent life. Writing candidly about his parents' marital troubles, the dog, his life as a tortured poet and 'misunderstood intellectual', Adrian's painfully honest diary is still hilarious and compelling reading thirty years after it first appeared.

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ is the first book in Sue Townsend's brilliantly funny Adrian Mole series. Friday January 2nd I felt rotten today. It's my mother's fault for singing 'My Way' at two o'clock in the morning at the top of the stairs. Just my luck to have a mother like her. There is a chance my parents could be alcoholics. Next year I could be in a children's home. Meet Adrian Mole, a hapless teenager providing an unabashed, pimples-and-all glimpse into adolescent life. Writing candidly about his parents' marital troubles, the dog, his life as a tortured poet and 'misunderstood intellectual', Adrian's painfully honest diary is still hilarious and compelling reading thirty years after it first appeared. Bestselling author Sue Townsend has been Britain's favourite comic writer for over three decades. 'I not only wept, I howled and hooted and had to get up and walk around the room and wipe my eyes so that I could go on reading' Tom Sharpe 'A satire of our times. Very funny indeed' Sunday Times 'We laugh both at Mole and with him.

A wonderful comic read, that, like all the best comedy, says something rather meaningful' Heat Sue Townsend is Britain's favourite comic author. Her hugely successful novels include eight Adrian Mole books, The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman (Aged 55¾), Number Ten, Ghost Children, The Queen and I, Queen Camilla and The Woman Who Went to Bed For a Year, all of which are highly acclaimed bestsellers. She has also written numerous well-received plays. She lives in Leicester, where she was born and grew up. Sue Townsend The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole is the second book in Sue Townsend's brilliantly funny Adrian Mole series. 'If I turn out to be mentally deranged in adult life, it will be all my mother's fault.' Adrian Mole continues to struggle valiantly against the slings and arrows of growing up and his own family's attempts to scar him for life in this second volume of his secret diary. Bestselling author Sue Townsend has been Britain's favourite comic writer for over three decades.

'I not only wept, I howled and hooted and had to get up and walk around the room and wipe my eyes so that I could go on reading' Tom Sharpe 'A satire of our times. Very funny indeed' Sunday Times 'We laugh both at Mole and with him. A wonderful comic read, that, like all the best comedy, says something rather meaningful' Heat Sue Townsend is Britain's favourite comic author. Her hugely successful novels include eight Adrian Mole books, The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman (Aged 55¾), Number Ten, Ghost Children, The Queen and I, Queen Camilla and The Woman Who Went to Bed For a Year, all of which are highly acclaimed bestsellers. She has also written numerous well-received plays. She lives in Leicester, where she was born and grew up.

Sue Townsend, author of Adrian Mole books, dies aged 68 - BBC News BBC News Sue Townsend, author of Adrian Mole books, dies aged 68 11 April 2014 Close share panel Image copyright Ben McMillan Image caption Sue Townsend achieved worldwide success with her books about the life of Adrian Mole Novelist Sue Townsend, best known as the author of the successful Adrian Mole series, has died. Townsend, 68, died at home on Thursday after a short illness. The first of her comic series, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, aged 13 3/4, was published in 1982 and the eighth instalment, Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years, was released in 2009. Her other best-selling novels included The Queen and I. 'Incredibly sweet' Media captionStephen Mangan: Sue Townsend "a hero of mine" Townsend, who was left blind after suffering from diabetes for many years, achieved worldwide success following the publication of the books about teenager Adrian Mole. The series followed the main character from adolescence under Margaret Thatcher's government, to maturity in Tony Blair's Britain.

Townsend said that, in many respects, her hero mirrored her own experience. In March 2013, she told the Oxford Literary Festival that publication of the next Adrian Mole book had been pushed back as a result of a stroke she had suffered. She was diagnosed with diabetes in the 1980s and underwent a kidney transplant in 2009. She had the stroke in December 2012. Image caption Stephen Mangan played Adrian Mole in a 2001 BBC adaptation of The Cappuccino Years, with Helen Baxendale as Pandora Comedian and writer Danny Wallace is one of a number of those who have paid tribute to Townsend. Wallace told the BBC: "If ever I saw that she was in a town close to me - and I'd never been to book readings or book signings before - but I always made sure I went to hers. "She was incredibly sweet to her younger fans and I've got all these books at home that she had signed and she would say, 'To Daniel, from Sue Townsend aged 43 and three quarters' or '45 and a half'.

"So she really understood what people loved about Adrian Mole I think." Media captionWriter Bali Rai tells 5 live: "We've lost a national treasure" Actor Stephen Mangan, who played Adrian Mole in a 2001 television adaptation, told Radio 4's Today programme that Townsend took him "under her wing" during filming. "There was something really special about Sue. She was a hero of mine when I read the books as an adolescent - I was pretty much the same age as Adrian - but when I met her I just fell in love with her really," he said. "She was warm, she was funny, she was self-deprecating. She was incredibly encouraging. "It was the first time I'd ever played a lead part in a series and, however confident I must have tried to appear, she instinctively knew how difficult it was for me to come and lead a company with people like Alison Steadman and Zoe Wanamaker and Helen Baxendale. I'll miss her a lot." Harry Potter author JK Rowling paid tribute on Twitter , writing "So sad to hear about Sue Townsend.

She gave me so many laughs." She added: "#AdrianMoleWillLiveForever." Image copyright Rex / Fremantle Media Ltd Image caption Gian Sammarco played Adrian Mole in the 1987 TV adaptation David Walliams also paid tribute on the social networking site, calling Townsend "a comedy genius" and "lovely lady" who wrote "some of the funniest books of all time". Crime writer Ian Rankin described her death as "a real loss". Writer Caitlin Moran tweeted that Townsend was "one of the funniest women who ever lived." Freedom of Leicester Townsend was born in Leicester in 1946, and set her most famous work in her home city. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, aged 13 3/4, was followed by The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole in 1984. The two books made her the best-selling novelist of the 1980s and they were followed by others in the Mole series, including The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole. Several of her books were adapted for the stage, while the Mole series was adapted for radio, television and theatre.

Townsend was awarded an honorary Masters of Arts from Leicester University and in 2008 was made a Distinguished Honorary Fellow of the university. She was also an Honorary Doctor of Letters at Loughborough University and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2009 Townsend was given the Honorary Freedom of Leicester. She said at the time: "I have been a citizen of Leicester for over 62 years, most of my family and friends live here, so I was delighted when I was nominated to receive the freedom of the city." She leaves her husband and four children.

Adrian Mole author Sue Townsend dead at 68 | Daily Mail Online Adrian Mole author Sue Townsend, 68, dies at her home in Leicester after a stroke Townsend was born in Leicester in 1946 and left school at the age of 15 She married at 18, and by 23 was a single parent with three children The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 ¾ was published in 1982 Captivated generation of children and was adapted for TV and theatre Mole series of books made millions for author but she gave most of it away Townsend was writing new Mole book, Pandora's Box, when she died She had lifesaving kidney transplant after her elder son donated a kidney Townsend was left blind after suffering from diabetes for many years Underwent a kidney transplant in 2009 but had a stroke at the end of 2012 Sue Townsend writing new Adrian Mole book when she died - Telegraph Book news Sue Townsend writing new Adrian Mole book when she died The working title - Pandora's Box - raises the prospect that Townsend planned for her hero to be romantically reunited with Pandora, object of his affection since schooldays Stephen Mangan played Adrian Mole in '

Adrian Mole - The Cappuccino Years' with Helen Baxendale as his love interest Pandora Photo: BBC By Anita Singh, Padraic Flanagan 12:41PM BST 11 Apr 2014 Sue Townsend was working on a new Adrian Mole novel when she died, with the working title of Pandora’s Box.

The book was due for publication this autumn and Townsend had sent “a few wonderful pages” to her editor, Louise Moore, earlier this year. It is not known if the author had completed a first draft, and it will now be up to her family to decide what, if anything, of the project will be published. The working title raises the wonderful prospect that Townsend planned for her hero to be romantically reunited with Pandora, object of his affection since schooldays and last sighted as the Labour MP for Ashby-de-la-Zouch. Related Articles 27 Feb 2012 Gian Sammarco as Adrian Mole in the Thames TV production of 'The Secret Diary' A spokesman for Townsend’s publisher, Michael Joseph, said: “We can confirm that Sue was in the middle of writing the book. Her editor had seen what she describes as ‘a few wonderful pages’. "It was supposed to be out this autumn and we are very sad that we won’t be able to show it to the world.” Moore, managing director of Michael Joseph, paid tribute to the much-loved author. “Sue was a comic genius. I watched her write many times, and I don’t use those words lightly.

“Her precision, clarity and sentence structure were simply perfect and that is why her words ring so true and are so very, very funny. “She was also a human of the very highest calibre. I loved her dearly, as did most people who were lucky enough to encounter her in their lives. Her voice will stay with us all,” Moore said. The new book would have been the 10th in the series, which began in 1982 with The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13¾. The 10th, Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years, was published in 2009. Townsend, who was left blind after suffering from diabetes for many years, revealed in 2012 that she was planning to revisit her most famous comic creation. Speaking at the Hay Festival, she said the book would be set against the backdrop of “austerity Britain”. “Adrian is going to be a big wheel in the village he lives in,” she explained. “But there are no facilities – the pub has closed, and the shops and the Post Office.

There is a horse therapy centre though.” Author Sue Townsend (Rex Features) The book would open with Adrian’s 45th birthday, she explained, “so there will be some reflection but only a bit – too much reflection is boring”. As news of her death spread, tributes were led by JK Rowling, Ian Rankin and David Walliams. The Harry Potter author praised the writer on the social media site Twitter, posting: “So sad to hear about Sue Townsend. She gave me so many laughs. #AdrianMoleWillLiveForever” Her publishers, Penguin Books, said she died on Thursday "surrounded by her family" after suffering a stroke. Tom Weldon, chief executive of Penguin Random House UK, said: "Sue Townsend will be remembered as one in a handful of this country's great comic writers. We were so proud to be her publishers.

“She was loved by generations of readers, not only because she made them laugh out loud, but because her view of the world, its inhabitants and their frailties was so generous, life affirming and unique." Stephen Mangan, who played Adrian Mole in a 2001 television adaptation, tweeted his condolences, saying: "Greatly upset to hear that Sue Townsend has died. One of the warmest, funniest and wisest people I ever met." Writer Caitlin Moran said she was "One of the funniest women who ever lived". Townsend was born in Leicester in 1946, and set her most famous work in her home city. She left school at the age of 15, married at 18 and by 23 was a single parent with three children. Television newsreader Julie Etchingham, also from Leicester, said: “She put Leicester on the literary map and Adrian Mole in our hearts. RIP Sue Townsend.” Crime writer Ian Rankin also paid tribute, saying that her death was “a real loss”.

He said: "So I'm reading The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole and marvelling at it afresh." Novelist Linda Grant said: "Sue Townsend did social satire without contempt and cruelty. She always felt to the reader like one of us". The poet Ian McMillan said Townsend "understood the rhythms of 'ordinary' speech and how magnificent and life-affirming they are". Musician Chas Hodges said: "Sad about Sue Townsend. Must say I preferred Adrian Mole to Harry Potter." Actor and presenter David Walliams, who has also written a string of best-selling books for children, said: "Sue Townsend was a comedy genius & wrote some of the funniest books of all time. A lovely lady too". After writing in secret for 20 years while working as a factory worker, shop assistant and youth worker, she eventually joined a writers' group at the Phoenix Theatre in Leicester when she was in her 30s. At 35 she won the Thames Playwright Award for her play Womberang and a year later published the first in her series about Adrian Mole, which she had begun writing in 1975 while living in Leicester's Saffron Lane estate.

The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4 was published in 1982 and was an instant hit going on to sell more than 20 million copies around the world. It was followed by The Growing Pains Of Adrian Mole in 1984 and six others in the Mole series, including The True Confessions Of Adrian Albert Mole and most recently Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years, in 2009. Much of Townsend's life was blighted by illness. She had a heart attack in her 30s and suffered from diabetes for many years, leaving her registered blind in 2001 and forced to resort to dictating her work. In 2009 she had a kidney transplant, also a complication of her diabetes, which was donated by her son, Sean. Speaking in 2012 she said: "He felt it more than I did. I'm used to having operations but he'd never been in hospital before. There was never any hesitation, though.

"I was thrilled he was going to give me his kidney, but also scared for him and truly appreciated it." In recent years she was left wheelchair-bound, with neuropathy in her limbs. Townsend also wrote a number of other novels, including The Queen And I, as well as further plays and two non-fiction books. Her latest novel, The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year, has sold more than half a million copies in the UK since it was published in 2012. Several of her books were adapted for the stage, while the Mole series were adapted for radio, television and theatre. In 2001 she wrote The Public Confessions Of A Middle-Aged Woman aged 55 3/4, a collection of monthly columns written for Sainsbury's magazine from 1993 to 2001. Townsend was awarded an honorary Masters of Arts from Leicester University and in 2008 was made a Distinguished Honorary Fellow, the highest award the university can give. She was also an Honorary Doctor of Letters at Loughborough University and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2009 Townsend was given the Honorary Freedom of Leicester.

She said at the time: "I have been a citizen of Leicester for over 62 years, most of my family and friends live here, so I was delighted when I was nominated to receive the freedom of the city." She leaves her widower, Colin Broadway, and four children. Sue Townsend | British author | Britannica.com British author Originally published in the Britannica Book of the Year. Presented as archival content. Alternative Title: Susan Elaine Townsend Sue Townsend Leicester , England Sue Townsend (Susan Elaine Townsend), (born April 2, 1946, Leicester, Eng.—died April 10, 2014, Leicester), British author who created one of Britain’s most popular and enduring comic characters, Adrian Albert Mole, whose wry thoughts and self-described misadventures she wrote about in eight fictional diaries, beginning with the best-selling The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 133/4 (1982). The novel was first devised as a radio play (1982; with the main character initially named Nigel) and was later adapted for the stage (1984) and as a TV miniseries (1985).

In her lovingly satiric sequels—The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole (1984; filmed for TV 1987), The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole (1989), Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years (1993), Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years (1999; filmed for TV 2001), Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction (2004), The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole (2008), and Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years (2009)—Townsend followed her hapless protagonist from naive, acne-ridden adolescence through his fruitless love for his childhood friend Pandora Braithwaite, parental divorce, personal relationships, single fatherhood, bankruptcy, and, finally, a bout with prostate cancer in his 30s. After Townsend left school at age 15, she was largely self-educated. An unsuccessful first marriage left her a struggling single mother working at a series of jobs, but in 1975 her second husband encouraged her to join a writing group.

Her first one-act play, Womberang (1979; set in a gynecology clinic’s waiting room), received the Thames Television Playwright award. Townsend wrote several more plays and sundry novels, most notably The Queen and I (1992; adapted for the stage 1994), which follows Britain’s royal family as it adapts to life in public housing after having been deposed, and its even more farcical sequel, Queen Camilla (2006). Throughout most of her life, Townsend was beset by serious health problems, including TB peritonitis in her 20s, a heart attack and diabetes in her 30s, diabetic retinopathy that led to blindness (2001), renal failure that culminated in a kidney transplant (2009) from her elder son, and a debilitating stroke (2013). Townsend’s final published work was The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year (2012).

Question: In the Sue Townsend novels, what is the first name of the love of 'Adrian Mole's' life?
Answer: 'PANDORA'